Russia is so corrupt that they have managed to imprison so many entrepreneurs on trumped up charges that they are now considering a partial amnesty as a stimulus program. Basically, the police will offer to put competitors out of business for a fee and then they’ll arrest innocent business owners and throw them in gulags. I don’t think things were all that much worse during most of the Soviet Era.
I think George Takei is right. The Winter Olympics should be moved to Vancouver. Vladimir Putin is revealing himself to be a monster. If the Olympics stay in Russia, I won’t watch a minute of it.
Hey, if the US Government gives Mitt enough money, maybe he could do what he did before, and we can hold the Olympics in Utah again.
Though, I’m sure most of the athletes would prefer a place a bit more open-minded than that state.
I’d much rather celebrate a victory, or mourn a loss, in Vancouver, than Salt Lake City.
Vancouver sounds good to me. Or Lake Placid.
I’ve said it here before, and I will say it again…..you know those white people who did not vote for Romney, but stayed home? It was because of Ryan and his plans to cut SSS and Medicare. That is also why Romney hid Ryan, and why towards the end they were not seen together much. Yet most of those whites could not vote for a black guy. I call them ‘grandma’ voters, because my grandmother (rest in peace grandma!) would never vote for a person who went after Medicare, but she would NEVER, EVER vote for a person of color (look up Ventura County, 70’s/ 80’s version). She would stay home.
The gerrymander was always something of a short term effort, that was not going to be effective once a white runs on the democratic ticket. Have a white democrat run on increasing Medicare and SSS and he/she would win 45 states, and pick up 50 seats in the house. The republicans have put all their eggs in the same lily white basket. It actually made them MORE vulnerable, not less.
Yet they can’t back down on SSS and Medicare being socialism. Because it is, and they are idiots.
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Shoot, wrong place! Who’s the idiot, now?
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LOL, there are many kinds of olympics, you were just talking about the political variety.
The olympic commission needs to address the security concerns. If athletes feel like they can’t come due to threat of persecution, that’s a real problem.
Even though Vancouver has all the infrastructure, though, that infrastructure is probably already booked for other things. People have vacations planned to Whistler, concerts are happening, hotels are booked, etc. The disruption might be more than they’d be able to handle (though if they did it with Oregon and Washington, they could spread it out a bit).
Hahaha. Thanks to geography and America’s post-9-11 paranoia, the border crossing south of Vancouver (I-5/Blaine on the US side), already the busiest in the country, is bottlenecked beyond belief. It takes hours to cross into the US – on a good day. And with water immediately to the west and the Cascades immediately to the east, there’s no alternate route that doesn’t take an extra half-day, or more.
Chamber types were all enthusiastic about visitors to the Northwest during the 2010 Olympics – and the idea of doing events cross-border has come up before, too – but in fact aside from a slight uptick in people flying through Seattle, the 2010 impact was miniscule.
Also, people going to Vancouver often don’t feel like making the short trip south because of the legendary (to non-US citizens, especially people of colour) rudeness, capriciousness, and hostility of US border officials. This has been a problem for a long time – I was married to a Japanese woman who actually looks more Latina for 20+ years, and her stories are legion – but it’s gotten exponentially worse since 9-11, GOP border hysteria, and the militarization of the border patrol.
The state of the US/Canadian border is effing ridiculous. It’s CANADA fer chrissakes!
The crackdown is imposing a lot of headaches on states like Maine. I’ve often wondered if a presidential candidate could expand the electoral map by running on reopening the border, whether a Dem going for Montana and North Dakota or a Republican going for Maine, Washington, and Minnesota.
George Takei is right, but the Olympics Committee is not going to move the olympics. Ain’t gonna happen.
Which means that the only solution is massive civil disobedience at the games from as many athletes and visitors as are willing to risk arrest and deportation (hey, it ain’t the gulag, after all). I’m quite confident the LBGT community will arrange a buncha mass protests. I’m completely confident that Johnny Weir will stage a protest that requires his own arrest.
Are the Russians really going to arrest star athletes and/or thousands of people sporting rainbow pins? Would NBC cover the arrests, or cover it up? Either way, the world will find out.
I’m watching. I watch for the athletes. Boycott the products that continue to advertise the games, not the games. Eyes should be on these bastards, not turned away.
I predict, however, that if Russia carries through with their threat to enforce their obscene law at their Olympics, then they never will be considered for another Olympics. I also predict that they’ll back down.
Two thoughts:
I lived and went to grad school in Vancouver, and it remains my favourite city to have ever lived in. It is, I believe, demographically the most diverse city in the world (though IIRC Toronto is catching up), public transit is to die for (especially if you’re used to American cities), and of course the city itself is gorgeous and wilderness is literally right outside the city limits to the north. It’s a great place to visit. But please, no more athletic spectacles!
gotta argue with this
>>demographically the most diverse city in the world
how are you counting this? Vancouver is still way over half white. It has a higher percentage of Asians than San Francisco or San Jose, but only a small hispanic population compared to California.
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Get real, why should the world ever come together and hold the games in the US? Ever since Los Angeles 1984, the IOC is in the hands of corporations, media and tycoons. One can never have clean games (East- and West Germany WDR) with atletes competing according to the Olympic ideal.
Action groups have come forward at a late stage. Inside Russia, the LGBT community strongly urges the world community to come to Sochi. By holding the games in Russia, the publicity and pressure will be your greatest asset. The Olympians themselves are not permitted to demonstrate … remember Mexico 1960.
The Olympic Community have had worse political situations: 1936 Berlin – 1956 Melbourne (Hungary Revolt) – 1980 Moscow (invasion Afghanistan). It seems the US and western nations have a very one-sided conscience about morals. Look at the participation of athletes from countries where there are no rights for minorities. European nations are awful: Chechs, Hungary, Serbia, Baltic states and in principle all Muslim nations.
Better not mix sports and politics unless in situations of international abhorrant crimes: 1936 Berlin (watch Jesse Owen) – 1972 Munich (massacre Israelis) – 1978 Argentina World Cup Soccer.
Putting pressure on athletes or individual nations is IMHO not fair for the Sochi Winter games. There are other underlying issues that may gain prominence: Russia: Sochi Games and the Circassian Genocide. Read The Guardian – The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics is a political tinderbox for Russia. I bet McCain will voice his vision in support of the State of Georgia and the Circassian Genocide. Oops, a bit of hypocrisy as Georgia invaded Abkhazia in 1992, got support from Gorbachev and fought against the Circassians.
Vancouver is in Canada not the US
“Ruslan V. Tyelkov”
That’s a court case, right?